Frank Cameron Jackson
Frank Cameron Jackson AO FASSA FAHA FBA (born 31 August 1943) is an Australian analytic philosopher and Emeritus Professor in the School of Philosophy (Research School of Social Sciences) at Australian National University (ANU) where he had spent most of the latter part of his career. His primary research interests include epistemology, metaphysics, meta-ethics and the philosophy of mind. In the latter field he is best known for the "Mary's room" knowledge argument, a thought experiment that is one of the most discussed challenges to physicalism.
Frank Jackson
Biography[edit]
Frank Cameron Jackson was born on 31 August 1943 in Melbourne, Australia.[2] His parents were both philosophers.[3] His mother Ann E. Jackson, who rose to the rank of senior tutor, taught philosophy at the University of Melbourne from 1961 to 1984.[3] His atheistic father Allan Cameron Jackson (1911–1990)[4] had been a student of Ludwig Wittgenstein[5] (having gone to Cambridge in 1946 for Ph.D. studies).[3] F. C. Jackson, in interview with Graham Oppy, reports of his parents that; they were both "philosophers in the Old School, by which I mean the Wittgensteinian School. Philosophy was part of your life."[6]
Despite his self-reported enjoyment of the philosophical conversation of his household it was with view to becoming a mathematician that Jackson went to the University of Melbourne to study maths and science.[6][7] And it was only in his final year of those studies that he chose to also take some philosophy which he found he better enjoyed and proved significantly more able.[6][7] He passed his B.Sc. but went on to achieve Honours in a B.A. whose main subject was philosophy.[8][6][7] During his time at Melbourne he was a resident at Trinity College, a Clarke Scholar, and a member of the 2nd XVIII football team.[9]
Upon graduation from his second degree, Jackson taught at the University of Adelaide for a year in 1967 and then went to La Trobe University for a lectureship appointment.[10] Whilst there, Jackson published his first book (which was also his doctoral thesis) "Perception: A Representative Theory" (1977). The following year he succeeded his father to the chair of Philosophy at Monash University.[10]
In 1986, he joined ANU as Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Philosophy Program, within the Research School of Social Sciences. At ANU, he served as Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (1998–2001), Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Research (2001), and Director of the Research School of Social Sciences (2004–7). Jackson was appointed as Distinguished Professor at ANU in 2003; he became an Emeritus Professor upon his retirement in 2014.[11] Latterly (2007–14) he had also been a regular visiting professor of philosophy at Princeton University.[12]
Jackson was awarded the Order of Australia in 2006 for service to philosophy and social sciences as an academic, administrator, and researcher. Jackson delivered the John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford in 1995. Notably, his father had also delivered the 1957–8 lectures, making them the first father–son pair to have done so.[13][3]
Honours[edit]
Jackson was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) in 1981[20] and of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) in 1998.[21]
He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001[22] and appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2006.[23]
In 2003 he was appointed as Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University and Emeritus Professor in 2014. In November 2018 Jackson received the Peter Baume Award, which recognises substantial and significant achievement and merit.[24]